The Grand Slam: Analyzing the Orioles (Week 20)

FIRST BASE

US Presswire

Playoffs? Playoffs? There was a time when you had to say those words in a high-pitched Jim Mora voice, but the Orioles actually have sent out order forms for playoff tickets to their season ticket holders this week. Who knows what happens the rest of the way, but that's a terrific sign of the progress that has been made this season. While you're dreaming, there is a possibility of 10 home postseason games if the Orioles win the AL East and nine if they get into the postseason as a wild card. Season ticket holders get priority, of course, but there will be a public sale of available postseason tickets some time in September.

Playoffs? Playoffs? There was a time when you had to say those words in a high-pitched Jim Mora voice, but the Orioles actually have sent out order forms for playoff tickets to their season ticket holders this week. Who knows what happens the rest of the way, but that's a terrific sign of the progress that has been made this season. While you're dreaming, there is a possibility of 10 home postseason games if the Orioles win the AL East and nine if they get into the postseason as a wild card. Season ticket holders get priority, of course, but there will be a public sale of available postseason tickets some time in September. (US Presswire)

If MLB was the NCAA: The difference between the NCAA and Major League Baseball, when it comes to discipline, is that the NCAA makes teams that use illegal players forfeit the games those players appeared in. If that were the case with MLB, the suspension of Oakland pitcher Bartolo Colon would cost the A's 14 victories and knock them out of the wild-card race. It would not seriously advantage any AL East team, since the A's beat each team in the division once this year with Colon on the mound, but it would help the AL Central and AL West wild-card contenders, so the system is OK the way it is.

If MLB was the NCAA: The difference between the NCAA and Major League Baseball, when it comes to discipline, is that the NCAA makes teams that use illegal players forfeit the games those players appeared in. If that were the case with MLB, the suspension of Oakland pitcher Bartolo Colon would cost the A's 14 victories and knock them out of the wild-card race. It would not seriously advantage any AL East team, since the A's beat each team in the division once this year with Colon on the mound, but it would help the AL Central and AL West wild-card contenders, so the system is OK the way it is. (Getty Images)